The report of the National Energy Policy Development Group, headed by US Vice-Pres. Dick Cheney and entitled, "Reliable, Affordable, and Environmentally Sound Energy for America's Future," features the following key recommendations for action.
To increase domestic production
- Departments of Energy and Interior will promote enhanced oil and gas recovery from existing wells through new technology.
- Interior will review conditions for deepwater and marginal production royalty relief.
- Interior will examine and modify impediments to federal oil and gas leasing, consistent with existing law.
- Interior will expedite an ongoing study of impediments to federal oil and gas exploration and development on public lands and review public land withdrawals and lease stipulations.
- Departments of Interior and Commerce will review federal laws covering the coastal zone and the Outer Continental Shelf.
- Interior will hold a lease sale in the eastern Gulf of Mexico (Sale 181).
- Interior will expand leasing in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
To ease environmental permitting constraints
- Environmental Protection Agency, DOE, and the Department of Justice will review existing enforcement actions regarding New Source Review to ensure that they are consistent with the Clean Air Act.
- EPA and DOE will ensure that the US has adequate refining capacity to meet the needs of consumers, streamline permitting when possible, and study changes in reformulated gasoline rules that might increase flexibility in the strained fuel delivery system.
To bolster global oil supply
- Departments of State, Treasury, and Commerce will review economic sanctions to determine if they are not in the interests of US energy security.
- Departments of State, Commerce, and Energy will support a Caspian oil export pipeline via Turkey, if it demonstrates its commercial viability.
- DOE will work with the International Energy Agency to improve global oil data.
- The Strategic Petroleum Reserve should be used to respond to an imminent or actual disruption in oil supplies, not to manage prices.
To ease gas, power supply shortfalls
- DOE, the Department of State, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will propose reforms to cross-border permitting with Canada and Mexico for gas and electric transmission.
- FERC will promote competition and encourage investment in electricity transmission facilities.
- DOE will consider expanding research and development on electricity transmission reliability and superconductivity.
- DOE will authorize the Western Area Power Administration to explore ways to relieve the Path 15 transmission bottleneck in California through a transmission expansion financed by nonfederal funds.
- By Dec. 31, DOE will identify and report on transmission bottlenecks and the advisability of establishing a national grid.
- DOE, in consultation with other federal and state agencies, will propose legislation to give FERC authority to grant electricity transmission lines the same eminent domain powers gas pipelines have.
- DOE and FERC will propose rate incentives that might relieve transmission congestion.
- Federal power authorities, including the Bonneville Power Administration, would review the need to build more transmission capacity.
